Sexual and Gender Minority Youth’s Mental Health: Learning Over Time

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Abstract

Research indicates that sexual and gender minority youth (SGMY) face greater vulnerability for poor mental health than their heterosexual and cisgender peers. Relatively fewer studies have examined SGMY’s mental health across time. In this symposium, we bring together a team of international scholars of SGMY to present papers focused on the role of time—developmental, longitudinal, and sociohistorical—for understanding SGMY’s mental health. Paper 1 uses age-based designs with population-based data from California youth (n=655, 581) ages 12-18 to explore gender-identity differences in mental health, bias-based bullying, and substance use. The authors find that transgender youth experience higher mental health and substance use risk than their cisgender peers, and that disparities are already present by age 12. In Paper 2, authors explore the consequences of racial discrimination and LGB victimization for SGMY’s mental health prospectively in a U.S. community sample of SGMY of color (n=478), and find that bias-based victimization has enduring and distinct repercussions for depression and suicidality. Paper 3 is the first study to assess the Interpersonal Theory of Suicide longitudinally in a U.S. sample of SGMY (n= 663), and shows that perceived burdensomeness predicts SGMY’s suicidality 18 months later. Paper 4 uses data from Dutch youth (n=2,521) to examine whether and how sexual minority mental health disparities have shifted across sociohistorical time. Sexual minority youth report greater risk for poor mental health, a finding that has endured across time. Together, these papers illuminate unique insights into SGMY mental health only accessible by centering the role of time.

Sub Unit

• Sex, Gender

Chair

• Meg Bishop, University of Maryland - College Park

Individual Presentations

• Age Trends in Gender-Identity Related Disparities in Mental Health, Substance Use, and Bias-Based Bullying - Presenting Author: Jessica Fish, University of Maryland - College Park; Non-Presenting Author: Meg Bishop, University of Maryland - College Park; Non-Presenting Author: Stephen T Russell, University of Texas at Austin

• Intersectional Minority Stress and Mental Health: A Prospective Study of Sexual Minority Youth of Color - Presenting Author: Allen Mallory, Ohio State University; Non-Presenting Author: Stephen T Russell, University of Texas at Austin

• Understanding Suicidality Among Sexual and Gender Minority Youth: Applying the Interpersonal Theory of Suicide - Presenting Author: Meg Bishop, University of Maryland - College Park; Non-Presenting Author: Amanda Pollitt, University of Texas at Austin; Non-Presenting Author: Stephen T Russell, University of Texas at Austin

• Trends in Sexual Orientation Disparities in Mental Health Among Dutch Youth - Presenting Author: Laura Baams, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen (UG/RUG); Non-Presenting Author: Jessica Fish, University of Maryland - College Park; Non-Presenting Author: Travis Salway, Simon Fraser University; Non-Presenting Author: Ashleigh Rich, University of British Columbia